Strong quake strikes north of Indonesia

ABC News

Indonesia’s meteorological agency says a strong earthquake has struck north of the island of Sulawesi, although there was no tsunami warning issued or immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The quake measured 6.5 on the Richter scale and was at a depth of 10 km with the epicentre 117 km north-east of Melonguane in the Talaud islands, it said.

Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes, lying in an area of intense seismic activity straddling a number of tectonic plates.

– Reuters

Jadual Kempen Anwar di Bukit Gantang

BUKIT GANTANG (5 April 2009):

10.30 pagi: Pekan Sehari Changkat Jering

11.00 pagi -1.00 tghari: Dialog dengan Warga Guru di Dewan Orang Ramai Air Kuning

1.00 -2.00 ptg: Jamuan Rakyat di Matang Gelugor DUN Sepetang

5.00 -7.00 ptg: Hi-Tea di Pekan Changkat Jering

7.30 – 8.15 mlm: Solat Maghrib dan tazkirah di surau/masjid Taman Kuning Sari

8.45 – 9.15 mlm: Makan malam bersama YB Nizar dan pimpinan DAP di Simpang Empat Bukit Gantang

10.00 – 11.00 mlm: Ceramah di Taman Kaya dalam kawasan Dun Changkat Jering

11.00 – 12.00 mlm: Ceramah di Taman Mewah dalam kawasan Dun Sepetang

Untuk dihubungi: Hj Ismail 012 508 0344

———-

PEJABAT DATUK SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM

Anwar minta rakyat jangan tertipu…

Anwaribrahimblog.com

Ketua Pembangkang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim meminta rakyat supaya tidak tertipu dengan pengumuman pembebasan 13 tahanan ISA oleh Perdana Menteri baru, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak malam ini.

Ketika ditemui pemberita di Bukit Selambau, Anwar berkata pembebasan tahanan ISA itu tidak sama dengan reformasi

Sepatutnya, tegas beliau, Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri itu dimansuhkan terus.

Beliau yang juga ketua umum PKR berkata, memang sudah menjadi kebiasaan bagi perdana menteri yang baru dilantik, untuk membebaskan tahanan ISA bagi menunjukkan sikap keterbukaannya.

Tetapi, katanya, selepas itu, mereka kembali semula bersikap kuku besi dan terus menggunakan ISA bila kuasa mereka terancam.

Contohnya, tegas Anwar, beliau sendiri dibebaskan oleh Tun Hussein Onn selepas dilantik sebagai perdana menteri ketiga.

“Tetapi selepas itu, (beliau) kembali guna ISA untuk tangkap orang. Dr Mahathir juga sama, bila naik, beliau juga bebaskan tahanan ISA.

“Tetapi sampai Operasi lalang beliau tangkap orang seperti Lim Kit Siang,” katanya.

Anwar berkata, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi juga membebaskan tahanan ISA apabila menjadi pertama kelima.

“Tetapi apabila (merasakan) kerajaannya terancam, beliau juga menangkap pemimpin Hindraf,” tambahnya.

Dalam ucapan sulungnya ke seluruh negara malam ini, selain mengumumkan pembebasan 13 tahanan ISA, termasuk dua pemimpin Hindraf, Najib juga membatalkan larangan penerbitan ke atas akhbar PAS dan PKR – Harakah dan Suara Keadilan.

Dua pemimpin Hindraf tersebut ialah peguam V Ganabatirau, 40, dan R Kenghadharan, 40.

Mereka adalah antara lima pemimpin Hindraf yang ditahan sudah hampir dua tahun. Tiga orang lagi ialah peguam M Manoharan, 46, yang juga Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Kota Alam Shah, P Uthayakumar, 46, dan bekas pegawai bank, K Vasantha Kumar, 36.

Turut dibebaskan ialah Pakana Selama, Amir Hussain, Sundaraj Vijay, San Khaing, Wan Amin Wan Hamat, A Artas A Burhanuddin, Francis Indanan, Mohd Nazri Dollah, Mohd Arasad Patangari, Idris Lanama dan Binsali Omar

Menurut Menteri Kementerian Dalam Negeri, mereka ini dibebaskan kerana tidak lagi dianggap sebagai ancaman kepada negara.

Ganapathi’s family waits for his release

The Malaysian Insider

By Adib Zalkapli

TAIPING, April 4 — Detained Hindraf leader Ganapathi Rao is happy with the announcement of his release but hoped other Hindraf leaders would be freed too.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in his first maiden speech last night, announced the release of 13 detainees including Ganapathi and R. Kengadharan, also from Hindraf, in a move that is widely seen as his commitment to reform.

“He is happy but wants all his friends to be out with him,” said B. Buvaneswary, the wife of Ganapathi, outside the Kamunting detention centre near here.

Ganapathi was arrested with Kengadharan and three other Hindraf leaders, T. Vasanta Kumar, P. Uthayakumar and M. Manoharan, in late 2007 for leading the largest ethnic Indian uprising in the country.

Buvaneswary spent more than an hour this morning with her husband but said she has yet to be formally informed of Ganapathi’s release.

“I don’t know what to say, I don’t believe anything until he comes out of the gate,” said Buvaneswary when asked about the government’s sincerity in announcing the release.

Since the announcement, journalists and dozens of supporters have been waiting outside the detention centre.

The announcement is also expected to dent Pakatan Rakyat’s campaign in the two by-elections, Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau, but DAP publicity chief Tony Pua believes the move would not affect the outcome of the polls.

“People are used to this kind of thing during election, that’s why they have stopped doing instant noodle projects,” said Pua, referring to small-scale construction projects often launched by the government during election campaigns.

PAS candidate for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin, who made a brief stop outside the detention centre, said the detainees should have been released long ago.

“To a certain extent it is an election ploy,” he said when asked about the timing of the release, adding that it would not affect his campaign.

Dr M and wife rejoin Umno

The Malaysian Insider

By Neville Spykerman

PUTRAJAYA, April 4 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah rejoined Umno today in a ringing endorsement of the new administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Dr Mahathir and Siti Hasmah handed over their application forms to rejoin Umno this morning to Najib at a simple ceremony here.

Malaysia’s fourth and longest serving prime minister had left Umno because of his disapproval of his successor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration.

He railed and campaigned against Abdullah, and contributed significantly to the eventual downfall of the country’s fifth prime minister.

Today, he rejoined Umno a day after his nemesis left office.

MORE TO COME

Video of Taliban Flogging Rattles Pakistan

Women in Lahore, Pakistan, protested violence on Friday.

New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The video shows a young woman held face down as a Taliban commander whips her repeatedly with a leather strap. “Leave me for the moment — you can beat me again later,” she screams, pleading for a reprieve and writhing in pain.

Paying no heed, the commander orders those holding her to tighten their grip and continues the public flogging. A large group of men quietly stands and watches in a circle around her.

The woman in the video is a 17-year-old resident of Kabal, in the restive Swat region in northwestern Pakistan. The images, which have been broadcast repeatedly by private television news networks in Pakistan, have caused outrage here and set off bitter condemnation by rights activists and politicians.

They have also raised questions once again about the government’s decision to enter into a peace deal in February that effectively ceded Swat to the Taliban and allowed them to impose Islamic law.

The two-minute video is the first known case of a public flogging of a woman in Swat. Apparently shot on a cellphone and widely circulated in the picturesque valley, it demonstrates vividly how the Taliban have used public displays of punishment to terrify and control the local population.

It was not clear what the young woman was accused of.

One account said she had stepped out of her house without being escorted by a male family member, according to Samar Minallah, a rights activist. Ms. Minallah said she distributed the video to local news outlets after it was sent to her by someone from Swat three days ago.

Another account said a local Taliban commander had falsely accused the teenager of violating Islamic law after she refused to accept his marriage proposal.

A Taliban spokesman defended the punishment to the Geo Television Network but said it should not have been done in public.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister of North-West Frontier Province, where Swat is located, also tried to play down the flogging by claiming that the video was recorded in January, before the peace agreement. He called it an attempt to sabotage the peace agreement.

Not many seemed willing to countenance the argument.

“This is absurd,” Athar Minallah, a lawyer who campaigned for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, said in a telephone interview. “No one can give justification for such an act. These handful of people have taken the population hostage, and the government is trying to patronize them. If the state surrenders, what will happen next?”

Asma Jahangir, one of the country’s leading rights activists, condemned the flogging as “intolerable.”

“This is an eye-opener,” she said in a televised news briefing in Lahore. “Terrorism has seeped into every corner of the country. It is time that every patriotic Pakistani should raise a voice against such atrocities.”

She said she would join other rights activists and citizens in a rally against terrorism on Saturday in Lahore, where militants stormed a police academy this week.

“It will be a peaceful march to show that the people of Lahore will not stay silent,” she said.

Jugnu Mohsin, a peace activist and publisher of Friday Times, the country’s most popular weekly newspaper, blamed the military for allowing the Taliban to gain strength and giving the militants a free hand to commit such atrocities.

Ms. Mohsin said she had received threats from Islamic extremists.

“I know that the federal and provincial governments are innocent victims and bystanders,” she said. “The military has handed over the ownership and refuses to fight.”

In February, after 20 months of losing battles against the Taliban in Swat, the government and the military accepted a peace deal and the establishment of Islamic courts in the region.

In return, Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Taliban in Swat, pledged to lay down the weapons and end the violence.

Those who opposed the deal said it would strengthen the militants and give them time to regroup and tighten their control in Swat.

The government said the agreement would end the violence.

Hundreds of schools have been destroyed in Swat, several government officials beheaded and education of girls banned under the Taliban.

Both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the flogging and ordered an investigation.

Taking notice of the video, Mr. Chaudhry formed an eight-judge panel in the Supreme Court to examine the case, a news release by the Pakistani court said.

The justice ordered the interior secretary to bring the young woman before the court on Monday.

Sherry Rehman, the former information minister and a member of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, demanded immediate action by the government.

“Ignoring such acts of violence amounts to sanctioning impunity,” Ms. Rehman said in a statement. “The fire in the Swat Valley and our northern regions can engulf other parts of the country, if we do nothing to put it out.”

14 Dead in Rampage in Binghamton, N.Y.

New York Times

A gunman invaded an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton, N.Y., during citizenship classes on Friday and shot 13 people to death and critically wounded 4 others before killing himself in a paroxysm of violence that turned a quiet civic setting into scenes of carnage and chaos.

The killing began around 10:30 a.m. and was over in minutes, witnesses said, but the ordeal lasted up to three hours for those trapped inside the American Civic Association as heavily armed police officers, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers threw up a cordon of firepower outside and waited in a silence of uncertainty.

Finally, officers who had not fired a shot closed in and found a sprawl of bodies in a classroom, 37 terrified survivors cowering in closets and a boiler room and, in an office, the dead gunman, identified as Jiverly Wong, 42, a Vietnamese immigrant who lived in nearby Johnson City.

Two pistols and a satchel of ammunition were found with the body. In what the police took to be evidence of preparation and premeditation, the assailant had driven a borrowed car up against the center’s back door to barricade it against escape, then had walked in the rain around to the front to begin the attack.

What motivated the assault remained a mystery. Binghamton officials said the assailant apparently had ties to the center, which helps immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement and other issues.

Daily Health Task Lists

“Health Lies in labor, and there is no royal road to it but through toil.”

 

 

 

Just like brushing your teeth, healthy habits should be cultivated on a daily basis. The following is a guide to daily tasks:

1. Activity should be a daily occurrence. Walk, run or jump for a minimum total of 20 minutes a day.

2. Protect your skin. Sun block should be applied on face, neck, arms and hands even in the dead of winter. It protects against climatic toxins too. Moisturize skin daily.

3. Eat fruits, vegetables, grains, low-fat dairy products and small amounts of protein. Avoid sweets and other processed foods. 

4. Meditate or spend a minimum of five minutes daily in quiet time.

5. Find your spiritual self. Discover what inspires you, raises your level of consciousness, motivates you, and satisfies your soul.

6. Exercise your brain. Read, study, solve problems, and learn new skills. As does the body, the brain atrophies with lack of use.

7. Hug somebody.

WAYTHAMOORTHY’S STATEMENT ON RELEASE OF 2 HINDRAF LAWYERS

The Mighty Pen

The release of 13 ISA detainees is nothing but a ploy to win the hearts of the people in the three by elections.

 

Mr. Najib should display his seriousness in addressing lack of Democracy in Malaysia and not short change the people of their democratic needs.

 

He should immediately release all ISA detainees unconditionally and order the immediate closure of Malaysia’s own Guantanamo Bay – Kamunting detention camp.

 

Without this act the Malaysians could not be fooled by his antics of “democratic reform.”

 

 

To read more please go to :

 

 

http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/waythamoorthys-statement-on-release-of-2-hindraf-lawyers

Anwar still finds Najib wanting

The Malaysian Insider

By Shannon Teoh

BUKIT SELAMBAU, April 4 — There was no let up in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s attack on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s first day as prime minister with the opposition leader finding inconsistencies in the latter’s decision to release 13 Internal Security Act detainees.

Just three hours after Najib had announced the release of two Hindraf leaders and 11 others, Anwar told 5,000 supporters in Bukit Selambau that so long as the ISA existed, Barisan Nasional could still detain citizens at will.

“Pakatan Rakyat still protests against this draconian law. They can still detain, then release, detain and release. Where is the justice? What kind of government is this?” he said last night.

The PKR de facto leader also played down the significance of the move, no doubt conscious of the effect it could have on the three by-elections on Tuesday.

“Yesterday they were terrorists, today they are innocent. Do not forget Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did the same, but then more were detained later,” he reminded the audience.

The Permatang Pauh MP added that this flip-flopping was symptomatic of the Umno-led BN.

“When we said the RM7 billion economic stimulus package was not enough, they said, no, this is enough. Then Najib announced a new RM60 billion plan and they said we support it. When the government called the detainees terrorists, they supported. Now it says they are suddenly innocent and they also support.”

Speaking to reporters later, he clarified that he welcomed the release of the 13 detainees but criticised the statement that the law will be studied.

“It was meant to stop militant communism and should have been repealed once it was resolved. There is no rationale to start studying now. It should simply be repealed immediately,” he said.

He also brushed aside suggestions that the release of two Hindraf leaders would affect the loyalties of Indian voters who make up 30 per cent of the electorate in Bukit Selambau.

“The release of Hindraf leaders is just one of the demands of the Indian community. For as long as they are still treated as second-class citizens, BN should not think that all the problems are over,” he said.

Anwar also insisted that the ISA releases would not have a significant impact on the three ongoing by-elections as all newly installed prime ministers did so and PR had already accounted for it in its plans.

While he refused to speculate on the intentions behind the release, he said the government should not “use it to delude the people that injustices can continue to be perpetrated.”

Earlier, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak also moved to refute the notion that his government has not brought any improvements in the 13 months since PR took over the state.

It comes on the back of some electoral groups in Bukit Selambau making known that they are unhappy with the running of the state government.

He reminded those present of the RM83 billion Kedah Hidrocarbon Hub and announced that the megaproject would take off in July.

“By 2013, oil refining will bring the state RM400 million a year,” he said, adding that it would increase to RM600 million to RM800 million a year by the next year.

The PAS leader said his only worry now was that his government would be destabilised before the project could begin to produce returns and urged Bukit Selambau to elect S. Manikumar.

He praised the PKR candidate and pointed out that his MBA and good business acumen would be an asset to the state executive council as he was assured the appointment should he win on Tuesday.